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‘Replicas, clones and tributes’: 131 Posts

* Anybody who has worked on a British car has wondered at some point why, when the rest of the world seemed to agree on negative grounds for their electrical systems, the English had to go with positive grounds. It actually makes a whole lot of sense, though, once you’re read through Steve Kirby’s “The Argument for Positive Ground” on the Los Angeles Jaguar Club’s site.

* A quick glance through the photos on this post at Motorsport Retro seem to show a number of well done 1/24-scale models of older F1 cars. A closer look reveals they’re all made of paper.

* South Africa’s Capri Perana was essentially a Capri stuffed full of Ford GT40 parts. A Canadian is building a clone. Car Build Index has the story.

My ’31 Ford speedster in my dad’s garage as of several months ago. Note the chunky bronze filler neck atop the oval gas tank just aft of the seat skins. Photograph by the author. All tech photographs courtesy of 1945 Speed & Custom and Jeremy Baye.

I’m probably not the only one out there to begin a restoration or a full-on build and make a grand pronouncement like, “I’m going to do every part of it myself, and what I don’t know how to do, I’m going to learn!”

That’s just what I said three years ago, when I started constructing my 1931 Model A Ford-based speedster. But go easy on me. It wasn’t because I was especially prideful of my abilities.

As a matter of fact, I had said it because—unlike my brother, Andrew, who earned a degree in automotive mechanics, or my dad, who was born with grease-stained hands—I knew I had just about everything to learn. I figured this would be a good way to go about doing that. Boldly announcing my intention was just my resolve’s way of getting a running start.

Problem is, as you know, building or restoring a car is a complicated calculus of factors that are often largely beyond our control. Suffice it to say that, in my particular set of circumstances, the time element began to throw off the equation. We needed things to move along a little more quickly, given that I don’t get to my parents’ house in Pennsylvania as frequently as I’d like and the fact that my dad/partner on the project isn’t getting any younger.

I first cried uncle after we had finished assembling the chassis from all the parts we had gathered and had dropped the warmed-up four-cylinder Model B engine onto its new Float-A-Motor mounts. It had taken us a year and a half to get this far, and I just knew that it was going to take way too long to learn enough metalworking to fabricate a body that would be passable with this particular pair of perfectionists. So we ordered an American-made kit from Rootlieb out in Tulrock, California.

I conceded once again when we had to figure out a way to join the Rootlieb-supplied, cast-brass fuel filler neck and the 16-gallon galvanized-steel tank.

Those of you who know welding, know that joining unlike metals, especially when one of them is galvanized steel, can present some problems, but my dad and I just didn’t feel the other possibilities that we were aware of were right for us.

One notable option I encountered in my research was to drill holes at a regular interval around the flange of the filler neck, then fabricate a steel backing plate with matching holes and nuts welded to them. By making the backing plate a collared flange split into two halves longitudinally, it would be able to be fed into the tank and held in place while a gasket is laid and screws are run down through the flange on the filler neck.

I ultimately realized that I didn’t even want to use the brass filler neck. All of the other brightwork on the car—radiator shroud, rock guard, air cleaner, Brookland windscreen mounts, fuel tank straps—was chrome, and in addition to disrupting the unity of the car’s style, the brass was really more appropriate to a speedster of the earlier Model T era, anyway.

In the end, I consulted with our friend Jeremy Baye at 1945 Speed & Custom in Troy, New York, and he knew just what to do.

First, he traced to a piece of heavyweight posterboard the base of the small “Cobra Style” filler neck that I had sourced from Speedway Motors for the job, because, as he explains, “Cardboard is cheaper and easier to work with than metal.”

Then, Jeremy carefully cut out the pattern using a razor blade. “With any fabrication job, your final product is only as good as your template, so I make sure to make the templates perfect. I don’t recommend using corrugated cardboard or an old pizza box, as you will have a tough time getting a crisp line. I use thick posterboard and cut it with a razor blade. That keeps the edges nice. And the posterboard works a lot like sheetmetal, in that you can put it in the sheetmetal break or the slip roll.”

To provide a flat surface for the fuel filler to mate to, and to give structure to the flange he was fabricating on the sharply curved tank, he opted for 3/16-inch steel plate. He used the pattern he had made to guide him as he cut the plate, and a hole saw to bore the aperture for the filler neck to slip down into. Then he marked, drilled and tapped the 10/32-inch mounting holes.

Next, Jeremy centered the plate over the location we had discussed (closest to the driver’s side for ease of filling), traced the hole he had made in the 3/16-inch plate onto the top of the tank and cut it out.

To make it easier to create patterns for the fairing that would join the tank flange to the tank, he tack welded the flange in place and once again traced the needed shapes to posterboard.

After cutting the two halves of the fairing out of sheetmetal using the patterns he had made, he shaped them and test fitted them in their intended locations.

He then TIG welded the assembly together using bronze silicon filler rod, because the galvanized steel, with its zinc coating, required welding at a lower temperature.

Jeremy points out that he could have ground the coating off the tank, but he would not have been able to remove it on the inside. If the zinc coating is not stripped away, either by mechanical or by heat processes, poorer-quality welds will result. Not only does liberating galvanized steel of its coating make it as susceptible to rust as untreated steel, it releases poisonous gases and warps sheetmetal when heat is the method of removal.

Using bronze silicon rod when TIG welding manages to create a strong, although non-load-bearing, joint even with galvanized steel and does so without pulling or warping the sheetmetal.

He repeated the whole process when he created a second flange on the tank for the mechanical fuel gauge I sourced from the auxiliary fuel tank of a World War II P-51B Mustang fighter plane. On the underside of the speedster’s tank, he also fitted a NPT-type fuel line bung.

Because he knew that the concept of my build had shifted over time from a rough-and-tumble dirt track-type racer to a more refined “gentleman’s raceabout,” Jeremy smoothed the welds with files and finished them using sandpaper. “Normally I don’t smooth out welds,” he points out, “but for this project I did, and I’m happy with the result.”

He test fit the polished stainless steel fuel filler to its newly fabricated flange and did the same for the fuel gauge.

You’ll notice that the gauge is slightly further inboard than the filler. I wanted to be able to check the fuel level (without turning around) in the rearview mirror mounted atop the speedster’s cowling, just by shifting my head slightly. This is the farthest inboard that the gauge could be positioned without obstructing the mirror entirely or interfering with the baffle in the center of the tank, and it’s the minimum distance from the end of the tank required for the gauge’s float arm to sweep freely.

To ensure that any unlikely porosity in the welds was sealed, Jeremy applied a skim coat of JB Weld over them and sanded it smooth, then he shot the whole tank with epoxy primer.

Finally, he cut gaskets for both the fuel filler and the gauge and put it all together using 10-32 stainless steel button-head screws, which he shortened slightly on his belt sander. Jeremy always says that it’s the goal of 1945 Speed & Custom to make things better than any factory could. I think he’s succeeded, don’t you?

As I haven’t filled the 16-gallon tank yet, I’m not sure if the needle on the gauge will sweep all the way to full, which, according to the dial’s face, would originally have been 80 gallons. My hope is that I get lucky and every value of 10 ends up equalling two, but if it doesn’t, I’ll simply top off the tank and mark the “full” position on the glass with a tick of high-visibility enamel paint. More important is that the instrument accurately indicates empty.

To keep it from clashing with the shift in the speedster’s “attitude” to something more polished, I’m considering repainting the housing of the fuel gauge in a fresh coat of gloss black paint. Though part of me cringes at losing the patina of its unique lifetime of experience.

The NPT-type fuel line bung in a flawless field of gray epoxy primer coat.

When I’m ready to paint the car—hood, cowl, deck trim and fuel tank—in a modern, single-stage version of Ford’s Washington Blue, I’ll scuff up the primer with sandpaper. When it comes time to connect my copper fuel line to the bung, Jeremy picked up a tip from an old plumber: In addition to wrapping the threads in Teflon tape as you normally would, use pipe dope, and the tank will never leak.

Though having to admit that you didn’t do everything in a build or restoration yourself can be humbling, it doesn’t mean that you can never learn, especially when you’re lucky enough to have gifted craftsmen like Jeremy around who are willing to help you understand what they’ve done.

When a replica of SS-100-X, the Hess and Eisenhardt-bodied Lincoln Continental limousine that President John F. Kennedy was shot in, popped up for sale last year, it came along with plenty of unanswered questions. Now that it has appeared among the listings for an upcoming auction, it’s also provided an opportunity to circle back and answer those questions.

As has been thoroughly researched and documented, SS-100-X started out as a regular Wixom-built 1961 Lincoln Continental four-door convertible (serial number 1Y86H405950), and that year went to Hess and Eisenhardt of Cincinnati for its conversion into a presidential limousine, a process that included adding 3-1/2 feet to its midsection, adding flashing red lights in the front bumper, a hydraulic rear seat to elevate the president, and retractable steps on the rear bumper for Secret Service agents.

It debuted in its modified form in June 1961, and during Kennedy’s administration, it received a 1962 Continental grille and 1957 Lincoln wheelcovers. After the assassination, it went back to Hess and Eisenhardt for further modifications, including a permanent roof, bulletproof glass, and additional up-armoring, the configuration that visitors to The Henry Ford will see nowadays.

The later modifications, however, meant that no Lincoln Continental existed in the configuration seen on the day of November 22, 1963. That remained the case, at least, until the spring of 1983, when restorer and replica builder Marty Martino of Gum Springs, Virginia, worked with Tommy Glenn to stretch another Lincoln Continental and give it the presidential limo look for the 1983 NBC miniseries Kennedy. Martino said he spent six weeks building the car and that, following production of the miniseries, he sold the limousine to Kevin MacDonald. MacDonald in turn made the acquaintance of Bill Hess of Hess and Eisenhardt and borrowed the blueprints for SS-100-X in order to further modify it, eyeing complete authenticity.

Kennedy with Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie in SS-100-X, October 1, 1963. Photo from the National Archives.

One of those modifications, Martino pointed out, is key to identifying the replica Kennedy limousines. When transforming 1Y86H405950 into SS-100-X, Hess and Eisenhardt’s craftsmen stretched the rear doors nearly the entire length of the chassis stretch, leaving a narrow filler panel between the doors; Martino instead left the rear doors alone and made up the gap with a wide filler panel. MacDonald, in his pursuit to make the miniseries replica more authentic, had its rear doors lengthened and the filler panel narrowed.

Not long after Martino sold the miniseries replica to MacDonald through an ad in the October 1983 issue of Hemmings Motor News, another collector, F. Nick Ciacelli, contracted Martino to make him a replica as well, one built with Doug Swain and using short rear doors, like the first replica. “It did have a few more authentic details than the first, but still is no match for the first after Kevin got through with it,” Martino said.

(By the way, Martino built his second replica by cutting apart and reassembling two Lincoln Continentals – a 1962 and a 1964. From the leftover bits he assembled a shortened Continental, which surfaced in Virginia a couple of years ago.)

MacDonald later sold the miniseries replica to Ciacelli, who, finding no use for two replicas of the Kennedy Continental limousine, sold the second (short-door) replica in 1985 for $30,000 to the Musée automobile des voitures de chefs d’État in Sauvigny-le-Bois, Bourgogne, France.

Photos courtesy Coys.

The latest attempt to sell the short-door replica, chassis number 3Y82N420576, is the third in as many years. In 2012, Heritage Classics, a collector-car dealer in Los Angeles, advertised the short-door replica for $125,000, describing it as “in the style of President Kennedy’s original Hess & Eisenhardt X-100.” Then last year, still in the hands of the museum, it appeared in the Bonhams Zoute sale in Belgium (described as a replica) with a pre-auction estimate of €90,000 to €160,000 (about $120,000 to $220,000). Now it’s scheduled to cross the block at the upcoming Coys Ascot auction (described as “arguably the truest representation in existence of the original presidential limousine” and “a real piece of American coachbuilt history”) with a pre-auction estimate of £70,000 to £100,000 (about $113,000 to $160,000).

As for the long-door replica, it has since appeared in a number of films depicting the assassination, including Oliver Stone’s JFK. Ciacelli has more recently been touring the United States with it as part of the Kennedy Experience, an exhibit of Kennedy footage and memorabilia.

The Coys Ascot auction will take place October 11 at the Ascot Racecourse. For more information, visit Coys.co.uk.

Some of you may be wondering what’s with all the attention we’ve been giving The Race of Gentlemen in our blog, Facebook and print magazines lately. Maybe you question why Hemmings—long identified with stock classic, muscle and sports cars—decided to sponsor a race of hot rods and jalopy hop ups to begin with. Aren’t there plenty of other enthusiast publications out there more appropriate for covering these kinds of cars?

The answer is that what happens out there on the sands of Wildwood beach each October is special, and it’s important to the car hobby.

With its prewar focus, The Race of Gentlemen harks back to a time when machines and life seemed simpler; when a fellow could repair (or improve) his own motorized conveyance without the use of an OBD reader; when we were less afraid of getting hurt trying do something exceptional; when Americans were filled with great visions—of highways, bridges, skyscrapers, airplanes—and were in the midst of making them a reality with their own hands.

For automotive enthusiasts, the first third of the 20th century is especially alluring because it was close to the beginning of things, and this is a fact that resonates with Mel Stultz, the impresario of The Race of Gentlemen (TROG).

When Mel first got interested in the world of motors and wheels, it was Fifties cars and hot rods that attracted him. He thought everything about them and their culture seemed cool, but, he explains, “The more I learned, the more I realized that it was the old guys I needed to learn from, and I started to regress. I went from Fifties cars to hot rods, and then I went from hot rods to gow jobs, and then I went from gow jobs to loving the early incarnations of speed equipment and brass cars.” He currently owns a 1929 Ford roadster and a Harley-Davidson with a 1938 UL engine in a ’34 VL frame.

Because of his own experience, and because he’s a natural teacher, Mel is understanding of the journey that people follow from interest to experience in the automotive life. “Where you start, is just where you start,” he says. “You learn along the way, and every day you’re getting educated. That’s what we do at the race, because many people have never seen the stuff, let alone seen the stuff run.”

For those of us concerned with the future of our car hobby and who think that being involved with it has much to offer that is positive, The Race of Gentlemen is good news. It’s an alluring hook for the next generation of enthusiasts.

“There’re so many people at this race,” Mel continues, “for whom it’s their first car or motorcycle experience. And, for me, that’s one of the greatest jobs that I can do, because it’s such an amazing thing in my life—it’s touched me and taught me so much.”

But because Mel has such a good eye for the way racing was—the way it looked, how it felt—TROG doesn’t just attract the twenty-somethings. Its authenticity manages to tempt some of the old timers out of retirement, and then the race becomes a powerful tool for passing on the knowledge.

“My favorite thing about the race,” Mel explains, “is that the old guys—that we’re losing every day—are a wealth of knowledge. They jibe with my generation because we love it, we love what they did, we love their generation, and we respect them. And they respect us that we’re so interested and so hungry, and they’re willing to teach us. And we’ve got to suck that up as best we can before they leave us.”

Add a solid contingent of motorcyclists—many of whom are restorers or were professional racers—to this mix of classic car drivers and vintage speed tinkerers at TROG, and you have rich and lively soil from which an automotive renaissance—rooted in the ideals of a bygone golden age—might spring.

Real or romanticized, TROG—from the goggled duelists with their straightforward machinery, their pre-1939 cars and pre-1953 motorcycles, to the throngs of spectators lining the track along the strand—is something people respond to. They seem to sense something living in it, something real that is missing from the world around us.

When he explains what he thinks we’ve lost, Mel becomes especially animated. “I’ve said it a zillion times. I think it’s this crappy world we live in, where we replace everything and we don’t fix it. The new generation of people in charge is just making bumpers and things all replaceable. You spray it, and you pin it on. You’re not hammering the stuff out any more. Everything is built like crap, and it doesn’t last, and the days that we admire are the days when things were built once, and they lasted.”

From the canvas advertising banners, to the timing tower, emcee stand and checkered pylons—and, of course, the cars and motorcycles themselves—everything at TROG has been made by hand. For Mel’s part, all of this takes an immense amount of energy and more than a year of time. As race time nears, he falls back on his military experience to get it all to fall into place.

“Not many people can deal with me as we get closer because I’m like, ‘We gotta go! We gotta do it!’ There’s such a Marine in me—I won’t stop. I’m painting, I’m welding, I’m cutting wood, I’m giving directions, I’m emailing, I’m calling, I’m non-stop from 3 in the morning. I wake up and I start, and I fall asleep by 9, 9:30. I can only get so much done, but every year it gets better and it gets better. Again, people don’t do things all the way any more. It’s the one thing I can do that’s mine, and I’m going to do it my way, and I’m going to do it the right way.”

But don’t think for a second that putting on TROG is anything but fun for Mel. “I live for making things, and I love racing, so it’s my two favorite things slammed together.”

And maybe that’s the most convincing reason why Hemmings has thrown its support behind The Race of Gentlemen, because we’ve heard over and over again that it’s the way racing using to be. It’s the essence of the car, of having an idea, of building, testing, rebuilding, pushing. It’s the sun on your face, and it’s the wind in your lungs. It’s the way it used to be. It’s fun.

It’s been 50 years since Ford took the drag racing world by storm with its lightweight Thunderbolt, and to celebrate, Dearborn Steel Tubing, the original manufacturer of the Thunderbolt in 1964, has just produced a new Thunderbolt.

The year was 1963 and Dick Brannan was the head of Ford’s Drag Team. Brannan was charged with keeping Ford competitive on the strip, and new NHRA rules for 1964 – which allowed a 427-cu.in. engine with a minimum weight of 3,200 pounds – meant that he would need to seriously update Ford’s entries to stay competitive.

Ford was already running lightened Galaxies with their powerful 425-hp, 427-cu.in. V-8s. The problem with the Galaxies was not their power, but their weight. Ford was only able to get the big Galaxies down to around 3,425 pounds, which was not going to be enough to compete against the new lightweight competitors from Chevy and Mopar. The Blue Oval needed to shed some pounds.

The solution came not from remaking the Galaxie out of construction paper and unobtanium, but by switching car models entirely. Inspired by Bob Tasca, who had started tinkering with putting a low-riser, 427-cu.in. V-8 into a 1963 Fairlane 500 two-door hardtop, the midsized and 700-pounds-lighter Fairlane became the subject of Ford’s drag racing efforts.

Brannan ordered 10 burgundy two-door hardtops and got to work making the Fairlane into a drag monster. The cars arrived at Dearborn Steel Tubing for modification already without their radios, heaters and seam sealer, but these were minor deletions compared to what the cars would undergo in the coming months.

All in the name of shaving weight (and thus, hopefully, time off the quarter-mile,) the Fairlanes had their front bench seat replaced with bucket seats from an Econoline, their rear and rear side windows switched for fixed Plexiglas windows, no sound deadening, no passenger-side windshield wiper or sun visor, and fiberglass front fenders, fiberglass doors and a fiberglass hood. Oh, and that new fiberglass hood just so happened to have a huge teardrop-shaped bulge in the center of it, under which lurked Ford’s powerful new 425-hp, high-riser, 427-cu.in. V-8. Fresh air was supplied directly to the mighty engine through intakes where the high beams used to be in the grille.

After a couple of months, Ford settled on the Thunderbolt name for its new drag racer, which actually weighed less than the 3,200-pound minimum and needed to use extra fuel as a ballast. Ford built 100 Thunderbolts – 49 four-speeds and 51 automatics – to satisfy the NHRA’s homologation requirement. Besides the first 10 cars that Brannan had personally ordered in burgundy, all Thunderbolts came in white.

The Thunderbolts dominated immediately, winning their first event, the 1964 Winternationals. The cars ran roughshod over the competition throughout 1964, with a four-speed Thunderbolt managing an 11.61 second quarter-mile at 124.8 MPH in 1963.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of these legendary drag cars, the Thunderbolt Owners Association, in conjunction with the Fairlane Club of America’s 2014 National Meet, recently hosted a banquet that brought more than 20 original Thunderbolts to Dearborn, Michigan.

It was at the celebrations in Dearborn that Dearborn Steel Tubing – now known as DST Industries – rolled out the 101st Thunderbolt. Commissioned by DST CEO Brenda Lewo in 2013, the new Thunderbolt was constructed by DST’s restoration team using a 1964 Fairlane to which they had given a full rotisserie restoration. While not a perfect clone, the reproduction Thunderbolt stays mostly true to the original, painted in vintage burgundy and powered by a 427 high-riser going through a Borg-Warner four-speed Toploader transmission, only receiving a few upgraded components to make it more streetable.

DST’s reproduction Thunderbolt will be auctioned off at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach in the spring of 2015 and comes signed by Dick Brannan, Brenda Lewo, Edsel Ford II and Mark Fields. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in memory of Brenda Lewo’s late husband and former DST industries CEO Joe Lewo.

A fantastic modern 2014 custom, Cody Walls’s 1959 Chevrolet Brookwood wagon will be at the show. Photograph by John Jackson.

If you need any more reason to be in Wildwood, New Jersey, on the first weekend of October, look no further than the inaugural Customs by the Sea car show. Run in conjunction with the Hemmings-sponsoredRace of Gentlemen, Customs by the Sea is a free custom car show from October 3rd through 5th presented by Kustomrama, the online “Traditional Rod and Kustom Encyclopedia.”

Customs by the Sea is a show for traditional custom cars of all ages, with a special focus on East Coat customs, and the organizers are very particular about what they’re looking for. In short, if a custom isn’t running bias-ply tires (unless it’s a 1960s boulevard-cruiser style custom,) it probably won’t be featured at Customs by the Sea.

Located on the boardwalk at the end of Rio Grande Avenue in Wildwood, Customs by the Sea will be just a short stroll away from the beach and the racing action of The Race of Gentlemen, with the symphony of sound of the prewar hotrods on the beach providing a soundtrack to the car show.

The show will be divided into three areas, the first being the so-called “inner circle.” The inner circle will be dedicated to historic custom cars from the 1930s to the 1960s made by legends such as the Barris Brothers and Korky Korkes. The inner circle is limited to just 12 of the finest, pre-registered vehicles. Customs by the Sea is currently actively looking for specific historic customs for the show and could use your help tracking some of them down.

“Wanted poster” for one of the many historic customs that Customs by the Sea is attempting to track down to invite to attend this year’s show.

The inner circle will be surrounded by the second area of the show, which is for traditional customs of all ages. Space in this part of the show is limited, so if you wish to display your custom, you’ll need to pre-register. The final area of the show is a custom parking lot, which is open to all customs, no matter the style; no registration required.

Fifty cars have already signed on to appear at the show and should provide a fantastic diversion when you want to take a break from watching prewar machines race on the hard-packed sand of Wildwood at The Race of Gentlemen. For more information and to pre-register your vehicle, go to www.customsbythesea.com.

A replica of George Barris’s 1958 Kopper Kart will be at the show. It was built by Mark Wojcik and his crew at Customs by Flash, and is owned by Vic Collins. Photograph by Customs by Flash

Here are a few more of the cars that are already registered for Customs by the Sea:

Racers roll up to the line as an afternoon sea mist rolls in at last year’s Race of Gentlemen. Courtesy of David Carlo Photography.

In the modern day of the muscle machine, we thumb a button on a key fob, a magic chariot opens and the reins of hundreds of snorting horses are placed dutifully in our hands. Indifferently, we lounge on leather seats, sealed in a climate-controlled Elysium, sipping our caffeinated ambrosia while every musician ever recorded awaits our command to play. To us, traveling inside these vehicular vaults—cared for by electronic stability control, anti-lock brakes and a host of other electro-nannies—the pavement may as well be another country, and going fast has become easy and safe.

It wasn’t always thus. Once, closer to the beginning of things, when mankind was only just gaining equal footing with the forces of nature, and animating iron with fire no longer required a wizard’s touch (though a certain giftedness helped), everyday mortals tested their ingenuity, craftsmanship and mettle against the gods of speed in the flat, elemental places of Earth. On the dry lakes, salt flats and ocean-plowed beaches of this heroic age, drivers like Ernie McAfee, Teddy Tetzlaff and Alexander Winton left their marks on the world of the muscle machine, some like Vic Edelbrock, Stuart Hilborn and Ted Halibrand quite literally so.

But wind-in-the-teeth, hammer-and-tongs racing is back. On October 3-5, The Race of Gentlemen – sponsored in part by Hemmings Motor News – will run on the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey. The race is open to all makes and models of cars, trucks and motorcycles, foreign and domestic. Bodies must have been manufactured before 1939, parts before 1953, and motorcycles must be tank-shifted.

Here’s a selection of some of the men and machines you can expect to see compete at this year’s Race of Gentlemen.

It might be easy to hate someone who, in his garage and using spare parts, built the spidery four-banger that handily beat you and everyone else, save a flat-track race bike, at last year’s event. Luckily, Mike’s such a likeable fellow, and his hard work in fabricating such a top-notch racer and then in dragging it the 3,000 miles from his home in Washington state to the event, is really irrefutable. And if you think you’ve got him beat this year, race rules and his own competitiveness dictate something new.

Bryan is the younger half of the father-and-son team racing at TROG this year. If his father couldn’t avoid the gene for a predilection toward prewar power, this fourth generation scion was certainly doomed. “Bryan, growing up with my obsession around him,” Scott explains, “well, I guess he didn’t have a chance.” Now Bryan co-owns DeLuxe Speed Shop with his dad. He started his early-style dry lakes racer about five years ago with just a body and has since tracked down all the right stuff.

The elder half of the father-son duo racing this year at TROG, Scott is a third-generation old-car enthusiast, and he owns DeLuxe Speed Shop in Commerce City, Colorado, with his son Bryan. Specializing in era-correct traditional hot rods, Scott proved that he knows what he’s doing when his car roared to a V-8 class win at last year’s Race of Gentlemen. “I’m sure this year,” he chuckles, “I have a target on my back.” In spite of his past victory, he’s still humble. “It’s an honor to be included in this race.”

Back in 2009, Artie purchased something very intriguing from under a tarp. At the time, he had no idea that the car was, in fact, Sam Alperti’s 1933 Eastern Outlaw Championship-winning White Phantom.The restoration was in good hands, as Artie has run his own full-service garage—complete with CNC and machine shop—in Summit, New Jersey, for three decades. “So far I have only been able to run the WP on dirt ovals,” says Artie, “so TROG is a great opportunity to get out of ‘left-turns-only mode’.”

The White Phantom is an authentic Sprint car with an Essex frame and chassis powered by a 216-cu.in. Ford Model A engine with Winfield speed equipment and backed by a Model A three-speed gearbox. Courtesy of Jeanne Cushing.

Mike Barillaro

Mike dubbed his drive the Walker Special in memory of Dave Walker, a close friend who had helped Mike’s brother build the car they raced at last year’s Race of Gentlemen. Dave died in December from a freak accident. “He really liked track-nosed cars,” Mike explains. Mike, 36, and his twin brother, Jimmy, own Barillaro Speed Emporium in Knoxville, Tennessee. Their father, a former drag racer, ran a speed shop in Connecticut, and he got them interested in cars. “He taught us many of the skills we use today.”

The Walker Special is a 1926 Model T narrowed 6 inches on a modified Model A frame and powered by a ’37 “Tin Side” V-8 with 9.5:1 Edelbrock heads, Eddie Meyer 2×2 intake, dual 97s and a ’48 F-1 toploader. Courtesy of Brent Myers.

T.J. “Throttle Jockey” O’Grady Jr.

Based in Long Island, T.J. is expecting his first child a week before the race. If baby Saige is late across the “finish line,” T.J.’s dad, an experienced racer, will drive for him. T.J. himself is no stranger to the strip, having regularly turned 7-second ETs in the quarter when he was just 19. He’s looking forward to a rematch with Mike Santiago who beat him in the first round at last year’s TROG. “He was running an overhead conversion on his banger. This year we are going flathead banger to flathead banger.”

Part menagerie, part three-ring circus, all race. With its goggled drivers and prewar machines grumbling around on the beach sand of Wildwood, each Race of Gentlemen is a phantasmagoria straight out of the mind of Mel Stultz. Lucky for us, Mel’s grasp of what once was and his vision for what could be again, is impeccable. To see Mel in action, directing his band of merry volunteers and fellow Oilers car club members, he is, at turns, general, jester, gear head, process artist and promoter, and his enthusiasm for what’s possible is infectious.

Dale Bell and Charlie Glick might not have the same name recognition among auto historians as do Barney Oldfield and Harry A. Miller, but the duos do share something in common: Both conspired to build a car for competition, and both ended up with the Golden Submarine. But while the result of one collaboration is lost to time, the result of the other will head to auction this weekend.

According to lore, the inspiration for the original Golden Submarine came when Bob Burman, a racing friend and rival of Oldfield’s, died in April 1916 at the wheel of his open-cockpit Peugeot during a road race in Corona, California. Oldfield ostensibly felt that Burman would have lived had he been safely enclosed inside his car, with a safety cage around him.

Then again, in the spring of 1916, when Oldfield approached Miller, he was also in need of a new mount – his seven-year-old Christie front-wheel-drive race car was “ready for the scrap heap,” in his words – and Miller had just completed his first from-scratch racing engine, a lightweight overhead-camshaft 130-hp 289-cu.in. four-cylinder that would be capable of 120 MPH speeds.

Oldfield debuted the original Golden Submarine in June 1917 to much fanfare and some ridicule, but it would prove itself later that year when Oldfield took four out of seven match races from Ralph De Palma in a Twin Six Packard and when Oldfield proceeded to take down every AAA dirt-track speed record from one to 100 miles.

Later that year, however, Oldfield’s enclosed-cockpit idea nearly killed him when a fuel line ruptured in a crash at Springfield, Illinois, and the Golden Submarine’s single-door jammed. Oldfield fought his way out of the Golden Submarine, but from there on out raced the car in open-cockpit configurations. Though he retired from racing at the end of 1918, he held on to the Golden Submarine for a while longer, handing the wheel over to Waldo Stein and Roscoe Sarles.

Like Oldfield, Dale Bell had a penchant for racing – at least in the Great Race time-speed-distance rallies – and he called up Glick at Heartland Antique Auto Restorations in Paris, Illinois, in late 2005 asking him to build a car to run in the next year’s Great Race – something patterned after an old race car, but also enclosed to keep out the elements during the Great Race. “So I said you’re absolutely describing only one vehicle,” Glick said. “And that’s the Golden Submarine.”

Bell gave Glick seven months to complete the car, but he also handed over a basis for the build: a 1916 Chevrolet with a 171-cu.in. Chevrolet four-cylinder engine of the same vintage, already built for racing with dual SU carburetors.

Glick’s first order of business was to visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway archives for photos of the original Golden Submarine, which he then took measurements from and scaled up to a little larger than the car’s original size. “I had to make it to fit a regular human, two actually – driver and navigator,” he said. “In those old photos, you see Oldfield really had to squeeze himself into the car.”

He then created a set of patterns for the body and began to hammer it out of sheet aluminum, the same material that Miller used for the original, laying the body panels over a cage of one-inch square aluminum tube, bent to shape. He fabricated both front and rear suspensions as well and adapted four-wheel hydraulic brakes to make it more roadworthy. Hidden headlamps and marker lamps make the car street-legal.

While Glick admits that it’s not as accurate as other replicas out there – Robert “Buck” Boudeman’s replica, for instance, has an authentic Miller engine powering it – he said he worked hard to engineer a measure of reliability into it that a perfect replica wouldn’t have. Indeed, while Bell dropped out of the 2006 Great Race with health issues partway through, he said that the combination of light weight, powerful engine, and favorable model year handicap made it competitive in vintage rallying. “It ran so good, it was almost like cheating,” he said.

* No, the King of the Hill Corvette was not a propane-powered special. Rather, “King of the Hill” was the nickname given to the prototype LT5-powered ZR1s, and one Corvette enthusiast went all the way to England to find the wrecked King of the Hill Corvette above, then proceeded to restore it.

* Remember the Nemo car from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? One hot rodder liked the lavishly decorated six-wheeled car so much, he’s started building a replica of it. The last update we see was from a couple years ago, so we have to wonder if he’s made any more progress on it since then. (via)

It should be the most basic rule of cardom: If you want to claim anything, provide the documentation to back it up, otherwise your claim amounts to little more than just a good ol’ story. Fortunately, the owner of this 1976 Ford Gran Torino Starsky and Hutch edition for sale on Hemmings.com is said to have the documentation to prove that his car is one of the cars that Ford built to dovetail with the Gran Torino’s most famous livery and not one of the many homebuilt clones (and to justify the expense of repainting it in said livery). From the seller’s description:

You are looking at a fully documented and completely numbers matching 1976 Ford Grand Torino Starsky & Hutch special edition. Due to the popularity of the TV show, Ford produced 1,302 of these cars for one model year only in 1976. This is one of those cars. It is estimated that fewer than 100 of these cars remain. The car you are viewing came from Ford just as you see it, it is not a clone.

Condition: The car is a rust-free, filler-free rock solid car with one repaint. The paint is outstanding and shines like new: No bubbles, no rust, no checking or crazing. The paint job was VERY expensive and is better than anything Ford could dream of in 1976. The original 351W engine was completely rebuilt by the Ford Motor Company 3,000 miles ago, along with the factory carburetor. The master cylinder and brakes were replaced at the same time, as were all the belts and hoses. All the gauges work and there are no leaks, rattles, squeaks, or knocks. The interior is beautiful and completely original. The rims are perfect and the tires are as new. All the lights work, including the dome light and dash lights. The ignition buzzer works as well. The engine bay is detailed and the car is truly “show quality”. The chrome, stainless trim and headliner are all original and are in good to excellent condition.

Documentation: There are many clones out there, but this is the real deal. This is not a tribute car, or a reproduction. It is a real 580022 car that has been fully documented by Kevin Marti. I have the full “Deluxe Marti Report” which comes with the car. I have a binder full of receipts for the mechanical work. I also have copies of the previous titles which trace the car’s provenance and ownership. The car was built in Chicago and sold new at Elk River Ford-Mercury of Elk River, MN on April 30th, 1976. The build sheet is still under the front seat, and it is in very delicate condition. I looked for this car for 5 years. I can’t stress enough just how rare and complete it is.

Other options and items that go with the car: Police light (removable, high quality and very expensive). Siren for car shows (discreet and not visible to the naked eye). High-end Sony AM/FM CD USB MP3 stereo with removable face plate. NOTE: The dash was NOT cut in any way. The unit was professionally installed and the rear speaker bays were used. The car does not have front speakers as it did not come with them from the factory. Original steering wheel included with the sale. Banner and stand for car shows included with the sale